Budget 2022 puts high earners on notice, targets big banks but Singh wants Trudeau to go further

The 2022 federal budget includes a pair of tax increases for big banks and insurance companies that will bring in more than $6 billion in revenue and put high income earners on notice that they could be next. But NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he thinks Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should have gone further.

Asked in an interview on CTV’s Question Period whether he thought the wealthy-targeting moves were enough, Singh said no.

“It would not be what I would have done as prime minister, but it is what we were able to achieve with the Liberal government in power,” Singh said. “We used our power to make sure that some of the wealthiest are paying their fair share. But that's one revenue stream. We argued for a lot more than that.”

As part of the Liberal-NDP deal the two parties agreed to very broadly move forward with making the tax system more fair, including “moving forward in the near term on tax changes on financial institutions who have made strong profits during the pandemic.”

In an effort to help boost revenue to pay down Canada’s deficit, the federal Liberals are moving forward on a series of measures meant to crack down on tax avoidance and make the big banks and insurance companies “help pay for the recovery.”